Damon sighed. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you.”
“Why are you here?” Zoe asked the first Guy. “And what are your last names so I don’t get you messed up?”
“We’re here to deliver a message,” he said.
“Another one? I just saw you earlier this afternoon,” Zoe said.
“I’m Guy Pettigrew and we were supposed to be more intimidating as pit bulls.”
“What’s the connection between you two guys?” Zoe said. “Aside from the fact that you are both possessing Chihuahuas.”
“We’re cousins. And we were both sent to hell by your mother.”
“In error,” the other Guy said. “I’m Guy Worley, by the way.”
“How did my mother send you to hell in error?”
“With her black magic,” Guy Worley said.
“Was she trying to send someone else to hell instead of you two?”
“Yes,” Guy Worley said.
“Who?” Zoe demanded.
“Our time is up,” Guy Worley said.
The dogs froze and then collapsed onto their sides.
“Oh no!” Zoe rushed over but by the time she got to the dogs, they’d stood up and started shaking themselves as if they’d been in a dirty mud puddle.
“Are the demons gone?” she asked Damon.
“Yes. For now.”
“Get those dogs out of here,” Bella ordered from the top shelf.
Zoe scooped up one dog while Daniella took the other. “They really are sweet dogs. Mrs. Sweeny loves Princess and Coco to bits.”
“If she did, she wouldn’t dress them up that way,” Damon said.
The doorbell rang. “Now what?” Zoe muttered as she took the dog downstairs with her. “Is this one Princess or Coco?”
She opened the door to find a middle-aged woman with spiky pink hair and a nose ring there. She was wearing a KISS ME EVEN IF I’M NOT IRISH green sweatshirt and jeans. “You found them! I don’t know what happened. One second they were on their leashes and the next they just took off. I’ve been going door to door all along the block to see if anyone found them.”
“They’re fine,” Daniella assured Mrs. Sweeny, who put her dogs back on their respective leashes.
“Thanks for catching them,” the older woman said. “I hope they weren’t any trouble?”
“Tell her they better not come back here,” Bella said from the top of the stairs.
“Who was that speaking?” Mrs. Sweeny asked.
“My grandmother,” Zoe lied. “She gets crabby without her meds so I better go.” She shut the front door.
“I get crabby without my meds?” Gram asked as she strolled into the living room from her bedroom on the main floor.
“Sorry, Gram. I had to say something to cover up the fact that Bella was talking.”
“What did I miss?” Gram asked. “I heard a big commotion upstairs.”
“Demons possessed a pair of pampered Chihuahuas.”
“Why would they do that?”
“They couldn’t get to the pit bulls they wanted. It’s a good thing that I put that protection spell over Daniella or they might have tried to jump from the dogs to her,” Zoe said.
“Ick.” Daniella shuddered. “Like fleas?”
“Only a billion times worse,” Damon said before speaking into his smartphone. “Neville, research the names Guy Pettigrew and Guy Worley and send me what you find ASAP.”
“What do you think it all means?” Zoe asked.
“That the demons are coming up with new ways to make trouble. First possessing you, then the human at the funeral home, now dogs.”
“You haven’t had demons do those things before?” Zoe said.
“I usually kill them first,” Damon said.
“What about an astral projection?” she asked.
“Also something new.”
“Music?”
“Ditto.”
“What is so special about these demons?”
“The fact that you called them forth,” Damon said.
“I need to figure out why my mother would send those two guys to hell, if that’s even true,” Zoe said.
“Did she keep a journal or anything?” Daniella asked.
“Not that I know of.”
“Did she give you your talisman?” Damon asked.
Zoe nodded.
“When?”
“On my thirteenth birthday.”
“Did she wear one?”
“Yes.”
“Where is hers? Is it back in Boston?”
“No. I have it in my jewelry box.”
Daniella held up her phone. “Nick just texted me that he’ll be here in a minute with dinner.”
“Show her talisman to me after dinner then,” Damon told Zoe.
The knock on the front door came a moment later. “That’s our secret knock,” Daniella said. “It’s Nick.”
Nick wasn’t alone. The good news was that he didn’t have any obvious demons accompanying him and the take-out bags of delicious-smelling food he was carrying. The bad news was that Tanya was right behind him with a bag of her own, a designer tote.
“What are you doing here?” Zoe asked Tanya.
“I’m not here for you,” Tanya said. “I’m here for Damon. I can’t believe how rude you all are to eat in front of him and not offer him anything.” She sidled up to Damon and ran her hand up his arm. “You poor thing. When was the last time you fed?”
Damon just shrugged.
“Well, don’t worry about a thing. I’ve got everything you need.” She moved her hand to his chest and then down to the buckle of his black pants.
“I’m working,” Damon said, lifting her hand back to his chest but not removing it.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t have a little feast of our own. Look, I brought your favorite. Type O.” She lifted the blood bag from the tote and held it up as if it were a prized possession.
What would Damon do? Would he rip it open and start guzzling blood? Would he and Tanya take turns swigging the type O?
“Don’t get any of that on my furniture,” Gram said.
“You’re a witch. You can remove stains,” Tanya said.
“Where did you get that from?” Zoe heard herself ask.
The temperature in the room went twenty degrees colder. “We don’t talk about that,” Nick said as he took the food to the table.
“I already figured out it has something to do with the funeral home,” Zoe said, turning to face Daniella.
Daniella shook her head. “My lips are sealed.”
“If you two want some privacy, you can go in the kitchen, Damon,” Gram said.
Zoe wondered if that was rude, sending him to the kitchen as if he were in a time out for being bad.
“I go where Damon goes,” Tanya said, clutching his arm and still holding the blood supply.
“If you’ll excuse us.” Damon wrapped his arm around Tanya and led her to the kitchen, the swinging door
